APPLE POSSIBILITIES IN CONNECTICUT 47 



ft 



APPLE POSSIBILITIES IN CONNECTICUT 



By EDWIN HOYT 



I PROPOSE to give you, briefly, the history of an apple 

 orchard on our farm which I planted just after the war, 

 so that now it is about 30 years old. You shall have 

 the story just as it is, and probably you can learn as much 

 from the mistakes as from the successes. 



The start was made by obtaining apple seeds from a 

 seedling tree that possessed the good qualities we desire 

 for stock seedlings, namely, vigor, size, symmetry, produc- 

 tiveness. The stocks grown from this seed were large, 

 strong and well rooted, very much to be preferred to those 

 grown from promiscuous seed. They were four years in 

 the nursery from the time the seed was planted till they 

 were ready for orchard planting. 



The trees were planted 30 feet apart each way, in a 

 good, deep, rich loam. The first mistake comes in here : 

 the trees are too thick. The branches of strong growers, 

 like the Greening, began to meet between the rows before 

 they were 20 years old, and now, when they are 30, all 

 the varieties practically cover all the ground, except in the 

 rows of the Wagener, which is a very small tree. Already 

 many of the lower branches have been, or soon will be, 

 shut out from sunlight and air, so that they will die. 



Moreover, 30 by 30 feet, or goo square feet per tree, 

 does not give sufficient room for the root development of 

 a large tree; 40 by 40 feet, or 1,600 square feet per tree, 

 would be about right for well grown 30-year-old trees. If 

 our trees continue growing as they have done, when 40 

 years old they will need 45 by 45 feet, or 2,025 square feet 

 per tree, two and one-fourth times as much as they now have. 



For a mature orchard on rich land, I consider 45 feet 

 the best distance to plant trees. This gives each tree sun- 

 light and air on all sides, ample room for root development 

 and their owner a chance to drive between the rows for 

 spraying and gathering fruit. I know we are advised to 

 plant close, the idea being that a portion of the trees can 

 be cut out later on. Three orchards were set in our town 



